Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00745)

Dear Erica,

This is IMO the best and truest post I've read on theos-talk in 
YEARS. Theosophia is a knowing that is deeply empathetic, yet most 
of what we see preached as Theosophy-opposed-to-non-Theosophy is 
anything but.

The universalist vs. particularist battle is fought as you say 
throughout religious history. At the moment I'm contemplating how 
Quakerism changed from a unified movement that brought genuine 
spiritual freedom into a fragmented movement in which people were 
more concerned with hating their (heretical) fellow Quakers than 
with loving their fellow humans.

Here's a link to a perspective that might offer some insight into 
this kind of degeneration:

http://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html

Thank you,

Paul


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Erica Letzerich <eletzerich@y...> 
wrote:
> 
> The Eyes of the Forgotten Children
> 
> "Strive to give back the Divine in yourselves to the Divine in the 
All."
> Plotinus
> 
>  
> 
> Could divine wisdom or theosophy be a written system? Would that 
not contradict the very meaning of the word theosophy? How could 
intellectual knowledge which is superficial and absent of wisdom be 
theosophy? Can we win in the battlefield of free thinking and do not 
surrender to the creation of dogmas?
> 
>  
> 
> For so long humanity is in constant but silent battle that seems 
to not have an end, and whose battlefield is within human mind. The 
battle between dogmas and freethinking is one of the major causes of 
conflicts. Two paths are unrolled: the path of those who lost in 
the battlefield and are prisoners and generators of dogmas, and the 
path of the freethinkers that are searching for the truth and do not 
associated it to dead letter.
> 
>  
> 
> Within the theosophical circles we can see the reflexes of such 
battle, and many have already surrendered to the powerful human 
tendency to dogmatize: quarrels disagreements original teachings, 
non original teachings, this is theosophy this is not theosophy etc. 
Exactly like Christians, Buddhists, and every other religious 
movement with intellectual division and conflicts. 
> 
>  
> 
> Today the word theosophy is generally associated to a set of 
doctrines based upon the genesis presented into the Secret Doctrine 
of Blavatsky, and numerous have been the authors that have written 
books in an attempt to simplify and explain the so called 
theosophical system. Other interpretation common given for theosophy 
is the ancient wisdom-tradition, and also the wisdom underlining 
religion, philosophy and science or the perennial philosophy. A 
third interpretation is that theosophy is pure altruism, the 
realization of the oneness of life.
> 
>  
> 
> The Greek word theosophy has two compounds: Theos (god) and 
Sophia. In ancient Greece Sophia (wisdom) was one of Plato's four 
cardinals Aretes (Virtues). According to Plato the spiritual 
harmony of the soul where related to the four cardinal virtues, 
which he considered expressions of the three basic energies of the 
Soul. Wisdom was an inner condition that would be an expression of 
one the three basic energies of the soul. 
> 
> Divine Wisdom or Theosophy is related to the energies of the soul, 
consequently can be understood only from within, there are no words 
in any language able to express the Divine Wisdom or theosophy. You 
may learn by heart the whole system presented in the work of 
Blavatsky and in the work of others, you may write, debate, teach, 
and affirm this knowledge is theosophy. But you will be still 
trapped by the intellect, consequently unable to know what theosophy 
is. Theosophy - Divine Wisdom- ought to be a potential alive within 
human nature, consequently theosophy can't be the lifeless letter, 
expressed in any book or writing.
> 
> Theosophy is a deep awareness of the unity of life of someone 
else's suffering that is also our suffering. It is compassion, 
altruism and love. Can you teach love, compassion and altruism? You 
may describe it, transform into words, but you will never be able to 
make the other to experience it merely by intellectual discussions. 
It is only the ability to experience it that will teach someone what 
theosophy – Divine Wisdom- is. 
> 
>  
> 
> Our great challenge in a world immersed in problems, where 
violence increases, wars, millions of children die every year of 
hunger is to try to realize theosophy from within and do not create 
dogmas. But if one cannot realize theosophy from within, can still 
be a fighter for freethinking and do not surrender to the battle. 
Only the cultivation of an open mind, investigative and a pure heart 
would irrigate the field making possible to flourish theosophy – 
Divine Wisdom.
> 
>  
> 
> If you cannot see the light in the eyes of the forgotten children, 
because you cover it with the darkness of human indifference, you 
don't know what theosophy is. And many that spread the darkness of 
indifference think they know what theosophy is and that they are 
able to discuss about theosophy. But they cannot see, as they cannot 
see the light in the eyes of the forgotten children, which they are 
simply generating dogmas, divisions, illusions, and that is not 
theosophy. Theosophy is the ability to see the light in the eyes of 
the forgotten children because their hopes, their dreams, their pain 
and happiness are also our hopes our dreams our pain and happiness.
> 
> Erica Letzerich
> 
> 
> 
> Erica Letzerich .'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 		
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